Photos: Former PGA Tour headquarters gets demolished

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – With the PGA Tour having moved to its new global home earlier this year, it was just a matter of time before the old headquarters that had served as the Tour’s mothership at 112 PGA Tour Blvd., for four decades, would be razed.

It happened recently with little fanfare. Both the East and West buildings, the main hubs of the non-profit member association, are no more. When asked about its future earlier this year, Laura Neal, the PGA Tour’s senior vice president of communications, said, “we are contemplating green space as part of the TPC Sawgrass entrance and future parking for the Players Championship.”

Located to the south of the clubhouse at TPC at Sawgrass, the PGA Tour upgraded to a three-story, 187,000-square-foot facility that brings the staff under one roof. Designed by Foster + Partners, the price tag for construction was a cool $65 million.

The PGA Tour moved its headquarters from Maryland to Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, in the late 1970s. Initially, the tiny staff worked out of two model homes until the former headquarters were completed near TPC Sawgrass. Patty Cianfrocca, who worked for the Tour for more than 30 years, turned the kitchen into her office while then-PGA Tour Commissioner Deane Beman used the master bedroom. Copiers and a postage meter were stored in the garage.

“For a P.A. system,” she said, “we just yelled at each other.”

Today, the PGA Tour staff has grown to more than 800. Prior to the construction of the new HQ, the staff was spread out over more than a dozen satellite offices throughout Ponte Vedra Beach and St. Augustine to accommodate its expansion.